AIG paying out 105 sorry 165 million bonuses.

[The Buddha]

Oh yea they're going to flee - where really ... there is hiring at other companies en masse for paper pushers really ? OK then please go.

BTW 11 exec's who got 1 million + bonuses were no longer with the company. Is that performance or retention, or sign on ?

Fact is, The government threw $$ and the problem without reading the contract.
They should have let AIG fail, and covered their counterparties only and only to a minimal extent, and only if they were critically important to an otherwise healthy entity. Anyone who bought a CDS against Lehman, from AIG who will die if that CDS were not covered, but will prosper otherwise will have to be covered. Else they die. Citi bank lets say had a 100 million in Lehmann CDS from AIG, Citi already in in collapse and already have their hand out to the tune of 70 billion. This 100 mill CDS is a drop in the bucket, screw them, you gambled, you lost. You thought the 3 card monty game you were in, is a credible player. Sorry screw you. However if AC delco had a fund that was paying employee pensions with lehmann Bonds that were backed by CDS, then cover that.

No reading the fine print, It was bail now, bail fast, bail big, and fail anyway.

Chapter 11 in govt control, and all contracts will be reviewed on a case by case basis. That was the way to do it. That means getting your hands dirty and meant not bailing goldman sachs before they got shafted. Sorry, that was why AIG was even bailed out. It was wrong for everyone who didn't own a chunk of goldman and it was very very expensive for any one who didn't work for AIG.
Cool.
Buddha.

[bettingpython]

I was against the bail out to begin with, the fact that bonuses were paid is because the bill authors allowed it. Other bailouts had anit bonus provisions so why did they allow AIG to have them. It's smoke and mirrors trying to distract people from the real issue which is where did 165 Billion dollars dissaper to? the bonus sum is chump change but it sounds huge and gets the entire population into the proletariat vs bourgeoisie mind set which makes it easier to implement socialist policies. I know businessmen who actually think passing a law to penalize these people who took their bonuses is the right thing to do... Do you? are you falling into the socialist trap? The .gov knew about the bonuses when they handed the money to AIG, this whole we were bindsided and don't approve of this money being spent in this manner is disingenuos they're caught and everyone has lost sight of the prize.

[The Buddha]

Right good diversion, but remember that this was implemented under the bush bail out plan by paulson. Noy just the Obama tranch by Geitner.
Yes its socialist and its not Obama who started it.
Seriously I will ahve let them all fail. The first 2-3 that fail will ahve made a huge noise, the rest will have faded into the background. Then we can recover and stimulate whatever.
Quick death, and that should kill the lumbering corporations. Then we start at the lower levels and stimulate the economy for the working class. Like GM and its parts suppliers, manufacturing, road building (and not just worthless dig a hole, fill it types).

Socialism yes, started by paulson under Bush in March of 08 and contimued from jan 09 by Geitner under Obama.
Frankly I think geitner needs a spine, and he needs to stand up to the heavyweights. Paulson was corrupt and is by design giving $ to wall street, Geitner is weak and hence unable to stop $ flowing to wall street.
Cool.
Buddha.

[bettingpython]

And who wrote the bailout? Congress. And who was speaker of the house? Pelosi. Who had a hand in the gongressional dragting of the bailout during the previous admin? Gethner. Who was the controlling party in the house the past 2 years?

It is disingeuos to believe the very people who are promoting obvious class warfare did not know about this sorry but it doesn't fly. Where is the 165Billion answer that then maybe I will pay attention to the paltry 165 million they want us to be upset about.

[bettingpython]

Good letter.

The following is a letter sent on Tuesday by Jake DeSantis, an executive vice president of the American International Group's financial products unit, to Edward M. Liddy, the chief executive of A.I.G.

DEAR Mr. Liddy,

It is with deep regret that I submit my notice of resignation from A.I.G. Financial Products. I hope you take the time to read this entire letter. Before describing the details of my decision, I want to offer some context:

I am proud of everything I have done for the commodity and equity divisions of A.I.G.-F.P. I was in no way involved in — or responsible for — the credit default swap transactions that have hamstrung A.I.G. Nor were more than a handful of the 400 current employees of A.I.G.-F.P. Most of those responsible have left the company and have conspicuously escaped the public outrage.

After 12 months of hard work dismantling the company — during which A.I.G. reassured us many times we would be rewarded in March 2009 — we in the financial products unit have been betrayed by A.I.G. and are being unfairly persecuted by elected officials. In response to this, I will now leave the company and donate my entire post-tax retention payment to those suffering from the global economic downturn. My intent is to keep none of the money myself.

I take this action after 11 years of dedicated, honorable service to A.I.G. I can no longer effectively perform my duties in this dysfunctional environment, nor am I being paid to do so. Like you, I was asked to work for an annual salary of $1, and I agreed out of a sense of duty to the company and to the public officials who have come to its aid. Having now been let down by both, I can no longer justify spending 10, 12, 14 hours a day away from my family for the benefit of those who have let me down.

You and I have never met or spoken to each other, so I'd like to tell you about myself. I was raised by schoolteachers working multiple jobs in a world of closing steel mills. My hard work earned me acceptance to M.I.T., and the institute's generous financial aid enabled me to attend. I had fulfilled my American dream.

I started at this company in 1998 as an equity trader, became the head of equity and commodity trading and, a couple of years before A.I.G.'s meltdown last September, was named the head of business development for commodities. Over this period the equity and commodity units were consistently profitable — in most years generating net profits of well over $100 million. Most recently, during the dismantling of A.I.G.-F.P., I was an integral player in the pending sale of its well-regarded commodity index business to UBS. As you know, business unit sales like this are crucial to A.I.G.'s effort to repay the American taxpayer.

The profitability of the businesses with which I was associated clearly supported my compensation. I never received any pay resulting from the credit default swaps that are now losing so much money. I did, however, like many others here, lose a significant portion of my life savings in the form of deferred compensation invested in the capital of A.I.G.-F.P. because of those losses. In this way I have personally suffered from this controversial activity — directly as well as indirectly with the rest of the taxpayers.

I have the utmost respect for the civic duty that you are now performing at A.I.G. You are as blameless for these credit default swap losses as I am. You answered your country's call and you are taking a tremendous beating for it.

But you also are aware that most of the employees of your financial products unit had nothing to do with the large losses. And I am disappointed and frustrated over your lack of support for us. I and many others in the unit feel betrayed that you failed to stand up for us in the face of untrue and unfair accusations from certain members of Congress last Wednesday and from the press over our retention payments, and that you didn't defend us against the baseless and reckless comments made by the attorneys general of New York and Connecticut.

My guess is that in October, when you learned of these retention contracts, you realized that the employees of the financial products unit needed some incentive to stay and that the contracts, being both ethical and useful, should be left to stand. That's probably why A.I.G. management assured us on three occasions during that month that the company would "live up to its commitment" to honor the contract guarantees.

That may be why you decided to accelerate by three months more than a quarter of the amounts due under the contracts. That action signified to us your support, and was hardly something that one would do if he truly found the contracts "distasteful."

That may also be why you authorized the balance of the payments on March 13.

At no time during the past six months that you have been leading A.I.G. did you ask us to revise, renegotiate or break these contracts — until several hours before your appearance last week before Congress.

I think your initial decision to honor the contracts was both ethical and financially astute, but it seems to have been politically unwise. It's now apparent that you either misunderstood the agreements that you had made — tacit or otherwise — with the Federal Reserve, the Treasury, various members of Congress and Attorney General Andrew Cuomo of New York, or were not strong enough to withstand the shifting political winds.

You've now asked the current employees of A.I.G.-F.P. to repay these earnings. As you can imagine, there has been a tremendous amount of serious thought and heated discussion about how we should respond to this breach of trust.

As most of us have done nothing wrong, guilt is not a motivation to surrender our earnings. We have worked 12 long months under these contracts and now deserve to be paid as promised. None of us should be cheated of our payments any more than a plumber should be cheated after he has fixed the pipes but a careless electrician causes a fire that burns down the house.

Many of the employees have, in the past six months, turned down job offers from more stable employers, based on A.I.G.'s assurances that the contracts would be honored. They are now angry about having been misled by A.I.G.'s promises and are not inclined to return the money as a favor to you.

The only real motivation that anyone at A.I.G.-F.P. now has is fear. Mr. Cuomo has threatened to "name and shame," and his counterpart in Connecticut, Richard Blumenthal, has made similar threats — even though attorneys general are supposed to stand for due process, to conduct trials in courts and not the press.

So what am I to do? There's no easy answer. I know that because of hard work I have benefited more than most during the economic boom and have saved enough that my family is unlikely to suffer devastating losses during the current bust. Some might argue that members of my profession have been overpaid, and I wouldn't disagree.

That is why I have decided to donate 100 percent of the effective after-tax proceeds of my retention payment directly to organizations that are helping people who are suffering from the global downturn. This is not a tax-deduction gimmick; I simply believe that I at least deserve to dictate how my earnings are spent, and do not want to see them disappear back into the obscurity of A.I.G.'s or the federal government's budget. Our earnings have caused such a distraction for so many from the more pressing issues our country faces, and I would like to see my share of it benefit those truly in need.

On March 16 I received a payment from A.I.G. amounting to $742,006.40, after taxes. In light of the uncertainty over the ultimate taxation and legal status of this payment, the actual amount I donate may be less — in fact, it may end up being far less if the recent House bill raising the tax on the retention payments to 90 percent stands. Once all the money is donated, you will immediately receive a list of all recipients.

This choice is right for me. I wish others at A.I.G.-F.P. luck finding peace with their difficult decision, and only hope their judgment is not clouded by fear.

Mr. Liddy, I wish you success in your commitment to return the money extended by the American government, and luck with the continued unwinding of the company's diverse businesses — especially those remaining credit default swaps. I'll continue over the short term to help make sure no balls are dropped, but after what's happened this past week I can't remain much longer — there is too much bad blood. I'm not sure how you will greet my resignation, but at least Attorney General Blumenthal should be relieved that I'll leave under my own power and will not need to be "shoved out the door."

Sincerely,

Jake DeSantis

[The Buddha]

I love it when peckerhead paper pushers start getting all righteous ... they talk of innivation in this or that ... WTF ... that same innovation was what lead to the subprime explosion and massive over leveraging ...
Its a 0 sum game no matter what they say its a 0 sum game. Some 0 sum games are not too harmful, but most others are.
If you cannot get the steady hard working and earning and bill paying folks to over extend themselves buying your "innovative product - heloc with 18% interest" cos they read the fine print, you push that crap on the reckless risktakers with 300 credit scores. BTW you do know that there is a reason they have 300 credit scores right ?
We dont need innovation. Heck we dont even need 1/2 the old products that are there, they only serve as a long rope to tie your noose.
Innovative financial product is literally like saying "very nice serial killer".
Its all about taking money from other people. If I was punching them and taking their $, and instead you sneak up behind them and pick their pocket, you are being innovative, OK fine you've robbed them but not had them get injured too. I have injured them. However they will fall for you over and over, cos they have never seen you, Me, they recognise a mile away and run. Innovative yes, detrimental, very very much more than the average crook.
Cool.
Buddha.

[bill14224]

Don't be fooled by any of this, folks.  The administration knew about the bonuses all along, including Treasury Secretary Tim Geithner.  They are the ones who got the language put into the Porkulus Bill in the first place.

They are only grandstanding about the bonuses to make you think they're on your side.

THEY'RE NOT.

The crooked politicians make their living based on the assumption that you're stupid, inattentive, or both.

DON'T BE.

Also, keep in mind that AIG is an insurance giant, and only one arm of the company, the arm that was engaged in credit default swaps, sunk the company.  The rest of the company is innocent.

[The Buddha]

Insurance of any kind only serves to increase the costs associated with things.
Lets try this, instead of paying your doctor you pay these paper pushers, who will pay your doctor. Can you tell me how that can be cheaper.
With these CDS crap available that encourages people to do very risky things. After all they cannot lose. Like you know insure you $$ and run to vegas. lose it and claim it on insurance. How is that financial innovation.
Cool.
Buddha.